Round II: AWS-3 Bids Top $2 Billion

The FCC's AWS-3 (advanced wireless services) online auction is underway. With the second round completed, the bid total now stands at $2,082,293,100 for 1,039 licenses. That is an increase of 27 more licenses bid on and 664 new bids.

The auction opened with 1,679 bids for 1,012 licenses totaling $1,767,350,800. There are a total of 1,614 licenses available.

In the AWS-3 auction, 65 MHz of spectrum is up for bid, part of a congressional—and White House—mandate to free up wireless spectrum for mobile broadband.

It will be the largest amount of spectrum auctioned since the FCC's 2008 700 MHz auction.

AWS-3 will be the second of three spectrum auctions mandated by Congress to fund the FirstNet interoperable broadband network, as well as local first responders, advanced 911, R&D, and deficit reduction.

The first auction, or H block spectrum, collected $1.564 billion toward that goal (FirstNet alone is $7 billion), but the FCC is already predicting that the AWS-3 auction will raise most if not all of that $7 billion, putting less pressure on the third auction, the broadcast incentive auction, scheduled for 2016.

If the FCC meets its reserves in the AWS-3 auction, it will more than cover that. The aggregate reserve for the 65 MHz is $10.587 billion.

Bidding continues until there are no bids, or requests for waivers. The bidding schedule is as follows, but can be speeded up if the bidding slows down.

Bidding Round10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. ET

Bidding Round1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET

Bidding Round4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET

The bidding schedule starting Friday, and continuing until further notice, will be:

Bidding Round10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. ET

Bidding Round12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET

Bidding Round2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET

Bidding Round4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET

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